Our Spiritual Metamorphosis: Step 5 - Build Consistency Series

Our Spiritual Metamorphosis: Step 5 – Build Consistency

Matthew 16:24-27

I was getting ready to do some research for my weekly sermon so I entered my office and flipped the light switch to the “on” position. It seemed that as soon as I had touched the toggle there was an instantaneous burst of bright light from the light bulb for a millionth of a second and then utter darkness. I had just experienced that light bulb’s last bit of life.

We always expect that at the moment we throw a light switch that it is accompanied by a burst of light. But we also anticipate that the bulb will continue to glow and emit its brilliance throughout the room in which we are entering. We desire for our lives to be illuminated consistently with the flip of a toggle on the wall or the tug of a string hanging from the ceiling. We dislike those times of inconsistency when a light bulb decides to go out with a blaze of glory and then leave us stranded in the midst of darkness thus leaving us just a tad bit frustrated.

Then there’s a desperate scramble that takes place in order to find a replacement bulb so that our darkened world can once again be brightly lit and our lives can move on as planned. But isn’t it amazing how a tiny little piece of wire inside the confined space of a light bulb controls our ability or disability to continue our work and/or our times of recreation. Once that filament breaks and the flow of the electrical current passing through it ends anyone nearby experiences a taste of inconsistency. I guess we could say that in order for our lives to be one of comfort within our homes and workplace we need a ray of consistent light that seems to make our time pass a little more quickly and our day to be a little more pleasurable.

I find Jesus’ word as recorded in Matthew’s gospel account to be encouraging us to be very likeminded in our day-to-day process of spiritual transformation. As we evolve into the person that God desires for us to be, He expects consistency from us. Listen closely to Jesus’ hint of our need for spiritual consistency: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” [Matthew 16:24].

PRAYER

Did you hear it? Did you catch that little phrase within Jesus’ statement to his disciples? Were you able to notice His call for us to practice the art of consistency as He spoke those few words, “…take up his cross daily…”?

Those are truly words suggesting consistency. Jesus’ desire is not only for us to help to Him in bearing the load but also to be more consistent in doing so: to continue to do his work peacefully, simply and together. That is stability. It is always being reliable when a need arises within the body of Christ. It’s a call to uniformity within the community of faith. But the attitude of having a consistent spirit begins within each one of us that call our self a follower of Jesus.

So how do you and I become spiritually consistent? What do we have to do in order to have a stable relationship with God and one another? Are there answers for those times we feel all alone or out of place within the life of the community of faith? What is the right attitude we should have in order to be an unswerving disciple of the Christ?

One of the first aspects to being consistent in one’s faith walk is found in the words of the psalmist: “So I will sing praise to Your name forever, that I may daily perform my vows” [Psalm 61:8]. What King David is trying to say here is that as he daily lifts up his voice in praise to God that he also is renewing his vow of acclaiming God as his strength, shield and fortress. David is saying that each day as he lifts up the name of God in prayer and praise that he is regenerating his relationship with his Heavenly Father and restoring to God his faithfulness and being bathed in God’s refreshing showers of blessing.

Several months back as I was traveling along one of the interstate routes I noticed a sign that was kind of a play off of an older advertisement scheme of the dairy industry. It was nothing more than a solid black background with a two word question in bold white lettering: “Got Prayer?”

This threw me back to the time of recalling the former advertisements of differing celebrities faces being shown on billboards and each wearing a bold white mustache of milk. Then somewhere on the background would be the words, “Got Milk?” I can remember thinking to my self each time that I would see one of these ads that I always get my daily allotment of milk. Now I may not always drink two glasses of milk but I do love the taste of chocolate ice cream and chocolate cake with creamy chocolate icing. And I do know it to be a fact that each of those are made with the ingredient of milk. So when it says “Got milk?” it has to be legal for me to say a profound “Yes!” to that question. Now that’s my attitude about getting my daily requirement of milk. And I know that if I get my daily intake of milk that I can build strong healthy bones and teeth.